Merchandising display device



Jan. 16, 1962 K. H. BoGLE `FT AL MERCHANDISING DISPLAY DVICE 3 SheetsSheet 1 Filed June 4, 1959 Jan. 16, 1962 K. H. BoGLE ETAL MERCHANDISING DISPLAY DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 4, 1959 Jan. 16, 1962 K. H. BOGLE ErAL MERCHANDISING DISPLAY DEVICE Filed June 4, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTRMCVS United States Ptatent ice animas Patented Jan. 16, i962 3,017,035 MERCHANDISENG DISPLAY DEVICE Kenneth H. Bogie, Marietta, and Charles K. Lovejoy, At-

tanta, Ga., assignors to Scripte, inc., a corporation of Georgia Fiied .lune 4, 1959, Ser. No. 818,173 9 Claims. (Cl. 211-70) This invention relates to display devices and more particularly to a merchandising display device having a compartment adapted to receive therein one or more cards having an article of manufacture secured to an edge thereof so that the articles are visibly displayed across the breadth of said compartment and may be removed therefrom by an individual desiring to` purchase said article.

The merchandising display device of the present invention comprises a main body portion having a plurality of sectorialily-shaped compartments formed therein with resilient gripping strips aligned at the top and bottom of each compartment for removably holding display cards in a fan-like arrangement with the outer edges of the cards exposed for convenient display of articles for sale.

The merchandising display device of the present invention possesses numerous advantages one of which is ease of loading. The display cards contained in any one of the compartments may be loaded as a group without individual positioning of each card.

A further advantage is ease of selection that is afforded customers since individual cards may be removed, examined and re-inserted easily when a customer is contemplating a purchase.

Ano-ther advantage of the present invention is the tight gripping of the cards in the device resulting from the use of inwardly deformed resilient strips which firmly resist withdrawal of the cards and prevent accidental removal of the cards as by centrifugal force when the merchandiser is of the rotary type.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that this type of display device minimizes pilferage since each displayed item is positively secured to its display card and intentional pilferage of a displayed article requires permanent separation of the article from its card which is quite conspicuous. The articles of manufacture may also be displayed on cards in a sealed transparent portion that prevents soiling of said articles.

Yet a further advantage of the present invention is the display card itself which has an article mounted on one edge for convenient display particularly when a number of cards are arranged side by side in a group for display of articles in a contiguous sequence.l

Still another advantage resides in the sectorially-shaped compartments in which the display cards are housed in a fan-like appearance with each displayed item being held in upright, uniform position. This arrangement also takes maximum advantage of the available space.

These and other features of the present invention are described in further detail below in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the merchandising display device showing one compartment loaded with cards, illustrated in dotted lines, having articles of manufacture mounted at the edges thereof;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the merchandising display device with a portion of the top broken away to show the construction of a sectorially-shaped compartment;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2 showing the details of construction of the resilient gripping strips that releasably engage the display cards;

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective View showing the resilient 2 gripping strips releasably engaging a display card having an article of manufacture displayed at its outer edge;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of a disp'llay card showing the top and bottom surfaces of the compartment and the gripping strips in section;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the display card, article of manufacture and transparent covering;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of a display card showing an alternate embodiment of the card of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective View of the card of FIG. 7 shown partially unfolded.

The embodiment of the merchandising display device of the present invention illustrated in the drawings is indicated generally by the reference numeral 10. The device may employ different forms but for purposes of illustration is shown and described herein as being of the rotatable type having a base 12 on which a vertical standard 14 is mounted for rotatably carrying a main body portion 16. The top of the main body portion 16 is provided with a supply storage compartment 36 for storing various sundry articles which are not shown in the drawings. Within the main body portion 16, adjacent sectorially-shaped compartments 18 are formed offset from the center of the body portion and having end walls 21 and diverging side walls 2t) and 22 with adjacent compartments having one wall in common as clearly illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings. It should be noted that the chosen embodiment is a multi-tiered arrangement with each tier having horizontal supporting surfaces that provide the base 24 and overhead 25 for each respective sective sectorial compartment 18. As seen in FIG. 3 the adjacent surfaces 24 and 25 of the tiers nest together so that the top tier is mounted on and supported by the bottom tier.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, it will be seen that the horizontal supporting surfaces that form the base 24 and overhead 25 of the sectorial compartments 18 are formed with an annular channel 26 for receiving therein an arrnular gripping strip 28 that is held in said annular channel 26 by an anchor ring 30. The gripping strip 28 is formed of resiliently deformable material and is U shaped in cross-section with vertical ap portions 29 protruding beyond the surface 24, 25 for releasably engaging each of the pilier-proof cards 32 that carry at the outer edge thereof an article of manufacture designated by the letter A. The spacing between the ap portions 29 protruding from the base surface 24 and the flap portions 29 protruding from the overhead surface 25 is less than the height of the display cards 32 so that when cards are inserted between the ap portions they will be gripped and held in place with the Hap portions deformed inwardly, as clearly shown in FIG. 4 by reference numeral 29. This inward deformation results in relatively little resistance to the insertion of the cards 32 because the force exerted in inserting the cards tends to further deform the strips 28, increasing the spacing therebetween and thereby reducing the gripping effect. On the other hand the withdrawal of the cards 32 tends to pull the strips 28 back to an upright position, reducing the spacing between strips and thereby more rmly gripping the cards. This increased resistance to withdrawal is of particular importance in a rotary type display device since it prevents the cards 32 from being thrown out of the compartments 18 by centrifugal force when the devi-ce is rotated.

The gripping strip 28 is uninterrupted, gripping the cards 32 effectively regardless of location of the cards. Therefore the cards can be inserted in a group without alignment of each individual card and after an individual card has been removed for inspection by the prospective purchaser it can be returned without difficulty.

Again referring to FIG. 2, it will be seen that, due to the aforesaid offset `arrangement of the compartments i8, one side wall 20 extends outwardly beyond the peripheral extremity that constitutes the display front for the articles of manufacturing A. This outwardly extending side Wall 26 provides an advertising panel 34 for advertising the articles of manufacture A that are stored in a given compartment 18 and in conjunction with the other side wall 22 serves to position the group of articles A in the compartment 18.

The pilfer-proof card 32 may embody a construction wherein the article of manufacture A displayed at the outer edge of card 32 is contained within a transparent covering 38 in sealed relation. Another means of securing the articles of manufacture A to the card 32 is by means of a band that surrounds the article A and is positively secured to the main body portion of the card 32. By such a construction the article of manufacture A displayed on each card may only be removed by intentionally separating the article of manufacture A from the card 32 on which it is displayed and in so doing render the card 32 useless for further display of said article. By such an arrangement, pilferage of small articles that are displayed on a merchants counter is greatly reduced since destruction of the displ-ay card 32 is a prerequisite for removal of the article of manufacture A that is displayed thereon.

rifhe preferred embodiment of the display card 32, illustrated in FIGS. and 6, consists of a cardboard blank 40 which is folded along a central fold line 42 and is centrally slotted as at 44 along the fold line 42 intermediate the ends thereof to form a recess at the edge when the blank is folded. A transparent plastic covering 38 is mounted in the folded blank 40 and has an enlarged bubble portion 46 located at the central slot 44 of the blank within which a pen, pencil or other article A is contained for display. The completed display card 32 is formed by inserting the article A in the bubble portion 46 of the covering 38, placing the covering 3S at the fold line 42 of the blank 4G and folding and securing together the opposing portions of the blank. Thus the article is sealed to the edge of the card in a visible yet pilfer-proof manner for convenient display when the cards are grouped in side by side alignment as in the compartments 18 of the present mechandising display device 10.

AnV alternate embodiment of the display card is illustrated in FIGS. 7 yand 8. This card 50 is formed from a paperboard blank that has three parallel fold lines 52 partially scored across the card with an unscored interval 5d intermediate the inner ends of the fold lines defined by spaced slits 55 that transverse the inner ends of the parallel fold lines 52. The blank 50 is folded along the fold lines 52 to form an exposed edge 56 with a V-shaped slot 58. The unscored interval 54 does not fold into the slot 58 but extends outwardly in the form of a loop which serves as means for holding an article A in the slot S4, as seen clearly in FIG. 7. The slot 58 is closed at the top by a staple 6i) to prevent removal of the article A. For reasons of economy, one side 62 of the card is considerably narrower than the other side.

The present invention has been described above for the purposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as delined in the appended claims.

We claim:

l. A merchandising display device comprising a main body portion having a compartment formed therein including at least a pair of opposed surfaces, a plurality of cards disposed within said compartment adapted to secure an article of manufacture at an exposed edge of each card so that said articles are visibly displayed across the breadth of said compartment, and resilient holding means located within said compartment on at least one of said opposed surfaces for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cards toward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely by edge contact.

2. A rotary merchandising display device for displaying articles of manufacture comprising a base, a main body portion rotatably mounted with respect to said base and having a compartment formed therein including at least a pair of opposed surfaces, a plurality of cards disposed in said compartment adapted to secure an article of manufacture at an exposed edge of each card, and resi-lient holding means located within said compartment on at least one of said opposed surfaces for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cards toward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely Iby edge contact.

3. A rotary merchandising display device for displaying article of manufacture comprising a base, a main body portion rotatably mounted with respect to said base and having a compartment formed therein, a plurality of cards disposed in said compartment adapted to secure an article of manufacture at an exposed edge of each card, and resilient holding means located within said compartment on at least one of said opposed surfaces for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cardstoward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely by edge contact.

4. A rotary merchandising display device as defined in claim 3 and further characterized in that said compartment has one side wall that extends outwardly beyond said cards disposed in said compartment to provide a panel for advertising the articles displayed on said cards.

5. A rotary merchandising display device for displaying articles of manufacture comprising a base, a main body portion rotatably mounted with respect to said base and having a plurality of substantially sectorially-shaped compartments formed therein including at least a pair of opposed surfaces, a plurality of pilfer-proof cards disposed in said compartments, said pilferproof cards having transparent bulbous portions adapted for visibly enclosing an article of manufacture at an exposed edge of each card, and resilient holding means located within said compartment on at least one of said opposed surfaces for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cards toward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely by edge contact with said articles of manufacture visibly aligned in fan-like arrangement along an arcuate front.

6. A merchandising display device comprising a main body portion having a compartment formed therein including at least a pair of opposed surfaces, a plurality of cards disposed within said compartment in side-by-side relation, said cards having transparent bulbous portions adapted for visibly enclosing an article of manufacture at an exposed edge of each card for display across the breadth of said compartment, and resilient holding means located within said compartment on at least one of said opposed surfaces for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cards toward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely by edge contact.

7. A merchandising display device comprising a main body portion including a compartment formed therein with at least a pair of opposed surfaces yand adapted to secure a plurality of display cards disposed within said compartment and opposed resilient members secured to said body portion and extending into said compartment for frictionally engaging an edge of said cards and urging said cards toward the other of said surfaces so that said cards are removably supported by compression between said surfaces solely by edge contact.

8. A merchandising display device comprising a main body portion including a compartment formed therein including a pair of opposed surfaces `and adapted to secure a plurality of objects disposed within said compartment with opposed edges at said opposed surfaces, and resilient members secured to said body portion and extending uniformly and continuously across said surfaces for releasably and frietionally gripping `at any point along the resilient members the opposed edges of said objects so that said objects are removably supported by compression between Said members by edge contact only.

9. A merchandising display device comprising a main body portion including a compartment with ya pair of 0pposed surfaces and adapted to secure a plurality or display cards disposed within said compartment with opposed edges at said opposed surfaces, yand deformable gripping strips extending uniformly land continuously across said surfaces, said strips Abeing deformed upon insertion of a card into said compartment at any point along said strips, the strips vthereby releasably and rictionally holding the opposed edges of said cards so that said cards are removably supported by compression ybetween said s'vlips by edge Contact only.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 637,889 Parker Nov. 28, 1899 Addie Apr. 7, Platt Sept. 11, Roach June 19, Ladd May 23, Wason Nov. 18, Schreiber Apr. 15, Hines Dec. 11, McClain June 13, Baumgarth Nov. 7, Carson Jan. 29, Volckening July 30, Nadel Dec. 17, La Fuente July 1, Klein Dec. 30,

FORElGN PATENTS Great Britain J an. 20, 

